“Just stop it, Gloria,” I chime in. She looks offended that I’ve even spoken at all, but I couldn’t possibly care any less about how this woman feels—the woman who told Tommy to kill me and then went to sleep. “I was there when he spoke to you on the phone tonight. I heard everything Tommy said, and we know he was talking to you. We checked the phone he was using, so just do us a favor and stop the bullshit.”
She glares at me like my presence is offensive, but I stare right back at her. I have no respect for anyone who’d have me killed so easily. So we can stare each other down all fucking night.
“Why’d you do it, Mom?” Dominic says, staring daggers into his mother. “How could you do it?”
Gloria’s eyes bounce around the room, searching for a lifeline, searching for words that will somehow get her out of this, but there are no words that can save her. There’s nothing but the truth now, and she must succumb to it.
“I . . . I don’t . . .” she stammers aimlessly before finally giving in. “I love you, Dominic. I love you more than you could ever know, and I didn’t want to see you wind up dead like your father. I just couldn’t live with myself if you ended up like him. You’re my only son! What was I supposed to do? My only son, the boss of a deadly crime family? The same one in which the only man I ever really loved was murdered in broad daylight. No mother wants to see her son end up like that, so I just wanted to get you removed from power. I wanted you to have nothing to do with that family. I never meant for things to get out of control the way they did. Tommy took it too far. It was all Tommy, I swear, sweetie. I’m your mother, I would never hurt you. I’d never wish death on you.”
“How about me?” I snap, my eyes boring into her, unflinching. “Would you wish death on me? I’m the love of your son’s life, and you told Tommy to kill me just a few hours ago. Isn’t that right?”
Gloria looks over at Dominic, pleading with him to drop this. No chance.
“I panicked,” she replies to my disgust. “Tommy went too far and he needed a way out. I didn’t think he’d actually kill you, so I just said some stuff to get him to leave me alone. I know Dominic loves you and I wouldn’t want to take that away from him. Tommy is an idiot, and I knew he wouldn’t do it. I didn’t really want you to die, Alannah.”
“Wow, you’re unbelievable,” I reply, feeling new, updated versions of hate being born within me. “You told Tommy to kill me, and then you went upstairs to your room and went to sleep like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. Even though you know how long Dominic and I have loved each other, you still could sleep after telling Tommy to kill me. How could you? What did I ever do to you?”
Out of nowhere, I feel tears starting up, and I hate it. I’m not even sure why, but they’re coming as all the emotions become too much once again. I’m overflowing with anger, sadness, and rage, but I’m also happy to even be alive right now. I’m completely overwhelmed, so the tears win the battle, overtaking my face.
“I’m sorry, Dominic,” Gloria says, her voice shaking with her own emotions and oncoming tears. “I didn’t mean for all of this to happen this way. I only did it because I love you, and I was trying to protect you. But I realized in the end, that once you’re in that life, you can’t just get out of it. I was naïve, and once I started it, it just wouldn’t stop. Tommy’s the idiot who took it too far.”
“Was,” I hear Dominic interrupt. “Hewasthe idiot. Thanks to you, he isn’t anything anymore.”
Gloria’s eyes immediately mist over, and then the tears cascade down her cheeks like a waterfall of hopelessness and regret.
“We’ve known Tommy a long time,” Dominic continues driving his point home, ignoring his mother’s tears over Tommy. “You chose to reach out to my closest friend and use him against me, and it cost him his life. You say you were trying to protect me, but you almost cost memylife, and you still might. The drama you and Tommy caused between Victor and me isn’t over yet. And then you almost got Alannah killed. Everything you’ve done has been a threat to the lives of the people closest to me. You’ve ruinedeverything, Mom. So, I guess you got what you wanted, because Tommy’s death is the end of my life in La Cosa Nostra. The Commission will come after me for sure now, and it’s because of you. So after all you’ve done to try toprotectme, you’ve ended up killing virtually everything dear to me.”
“I’m sorry, Dominic,” Gloria says, her eyes raining with tears. “I only wanted to keep you safe and out of harm’s way. I just wanted to keep you alive so you and I could have a relationship again. I didn’t want to watch you die. I just wanted to be your mother. It’s all I have left in this world.”
“You arenotmy mother anymore,” Dominic snips, and his words snatch all of the air out of the room. Gloria even stops crying momentarily, and so do I. “You destroyed our relationship a long time ago when you couldn’t handle the fact that I was just like my father. You couldn’t handle it when I needed to avenge his death, so you shut me out. You only came around on birthdays or sent text messages on holidays. You shut me out because of what I do, but you had no problem taking the money I would send here. You had no problem with La Cosa Nostra when it was fueling your lifestyle. And now, in the end, you’ve done the thing that no one will ever be get way with—you’ve threatened Alannah.”
“Dominic, please forgive me. I’m so sorry,” Gloria pleads, just as Dominic reaches into his coat and removes the gun from its holster.
He looks at it like he hates it, like it’s foreign to him, because it is. The shiny chrome reflects his face back to him as he puts Tommy’s gun on the glass coffee table between Gloria and us with tears in his eyes.
“Dominic,” Gloria whispers, as I listen intently, my heartbeat racing at the sight of the gun, at the implication it gives. “What are you going to do with that? I’m your mother.”
“I spent the entire ride over thinking about what I would do once I got here,” Dominic says, shaking the tears away and returning to the mob boss he is. “I went back and forth about it, over and over again, and I told myself I’d figure it out once I saw you, once I heard what you had to say. I’ve got it now.”
Everything goes still as Dominic reaches over and puts a finger on the chrome nine millimeter. “Idon’tforgive you for what you’ve done, and if you were anybody else, this is the part where I’d pick this gun up and jam it under your chin. You deserve to die for how you’ve selfishly ruined everything in my life, but instead of killing you, I’m gonna do the same to you. You wanted a relationship with me? Well, I want you to know that there’s no chance we’ll ever have a relationship now. You almost got me killed, and you tried to have Alannah killed, and there’s no coming back from that. After we leave this house, you’re gonna pack your stuff and go. You’re gonna leave the entire state of Illinois, and you’re not gonna cross back into Missouri either. We’re done. You’re done. You won’t get another dime from me. I’m dead to you, and you’re dead to me. And if I ever see you again, I might go against the promise I made to myself when I saw you open the door that I wouldn’t kill you. You’re not a mother anymore. You’re just some woman who doesn’t know what it means to be a mother. So, pack your stuff and go away. Forever.” Dominic uses his finger to spin Tommy’s gun around in circles on the table. “I’ll leave this here to remind you of why your life is changing the way it is. This is Tommy’s gun—the man you got killed, and the gun you wanted him to use to kill Alannah—it’s the perfect memento. Goodbye Gloria.”
With that, Dominic stands up and I follow his lead towards the door. Behind us, Gloria cries heavy sobs as she stares at the gun still spinning on the glass table.
“Dominic, please,” I hear her pleading behind us, but Dominic doesn’t miss a step. “Dominic, please don’t go! You’re all I have left.”
Dominic slams the door behind us, then he takes my hand and leads me down the path towards the car parked across the street. He walks me around to the passenger side and opens the door for me, holding it as I slide onto the leather seat. We smile pained smiles at each other just as he closes the door and makes his way to the other side, but when he gets halfway, he’s interrupted by the sound of a single gunshot.
I jump in my seat as my eyes dart over to the house, then back to Dominic to see if he’s hit. But he isn’t. The shot came from within the house, and it only takes a second for me to realize what just happened.
Gloria.
Dominic pauses in the street, breathing heavily as he stares at the house he grew up in. Tears fill his eyes, but only one falls down his cheek, which he quickly wipes away before continuing his walk to the driver’s side. He opens the door and gets in without saying a word, starting up the roaring engine and slowly driving away as he reaches over and interlocks his fingers with mine.
